The Personal Obligatory Knowledge of Islam

The Personal Obligatory Knowledge of Islam is a necessary portion of Islamic knowledge which is obligatory upon every accountable person to acquire; otherwise one is sinful. Such knowledge entails matters of belief in Allah, His Angels, His Books, His Messengers, the Day of Judgment, Destiny, and the like. It also includes matters of purification, prayer, fasting, zakah (type of financial obligation) upon the liable, pilgrimage upon the able, and the sins of the heart, hands, eyes, and the like. Imam Ja^far As-Sadiq stated as related by Abul Qasim Al-Qushayriyy in his letter Ar-Risalah Al-Qushayriyyah, “Whoever claims that Allah is in something, on something, or from something commits shirk (a type of blasphemy), because if He was in something, He would be contained, and if He was on something, He would be carried, and if He was from something, He would be a creature”. The scholar Imam Ahmad Ibn Hanbal, may Allah raise his rank said, “Whatever you imagine in your mind, Allah does not resemble it.”